Reply to At What Age is it Appropriate to Start to Talk about Dieting? (12 YO DS)

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[quote=Anonymous]There are two of us on here discussing our 100 lb 10 yr olds.  Mine is the DD who is fine at that weight (according to her pediatrician, not just a deluded mother) but it is possible that the other mom is accurate in seeing her son's weight as a problem, given that she noted he's put on weight recently and medical professionals have flagged it as a potential issue.  This doesn't mean "put him on a diet" but it is a call to examine the whole family's eating and activity patterns without singling out the child.  100 lbs can be different on different kids since everyone is different and frame size and muscle mass has a big impact on how 100lbs looks on a person.

My DD has always grown consistently at the 97th percentile but is actually starting to come down off that curve in weight (100 lbs at 10 is below 97th percentile while her height is still 97th).  Only one time over the years did her weight fluctuate above her growth curve.  The pediatrician noted it as something to keep an eye on and so we examined what might have changed and I discovered that in the months prior when DH took over packing lunches (I changed jobs and started going to work early in the a.m.) he was packing her a big bagel with cream cheese every day!  We stopped that, added more healthy protein and fruit, and by the next appt she was back to her usual curve.

To the PP who said 100lbs at 5 ft is fine for an adult but not a kid, that's ridiculous.  A kid is still growing!  It's completely normal for preteens to put on weight before shooting up in height in their teens.

The main thing is to look at behaviors -- healthy diet, active lives, good relationship with food.  I have two kids, my 97th percentile DD and a 50th percentile DS.  Both have always grown consistently on those tracks.  But I worry a lot more about my 50th percentile DS because he's the one with a big sweet tooth, always begging for soda, would play video games all day if we let him, doesn't like to play outside.  We make him do it but it's a struggle.  My larger DD, despite outweighing him by 20+ lbs, is the one who's not really interested in TV/video games, plays outside as much as she can, doesn't like soda or french fries, and can take two bites of a piece of cake and be done.  We feed them the same diet but genetically, DS takes after my slim brother and DD looks like my tall, curvy (not fat!) MIL.

Seriously, please read "Your Child's Weight: Helping without Harming" by Ellyn Satter.  It provides great info about healthy growth, establishing healthy eating behaviors, the dangers of restrictive feeding, and the importance of accepting the child you have and supporting them to achieve the healthy size they are genetically programmed to have (which may be larger than the average - and that really is OK).[/quote]

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